The recovery, behind the scenes

Search and rescue volunteers were all doing something different before they got the call reporting a plane went down on Pennock Mountain March 3.

Volunteer Matt Roberts was spending time with his children. Carbon County Sheriff’s Deputy Travis Starck was at a benefit dinner in Encampment. Volunteer Randy Sikes was doing chores.

But they all responded to the call in the same way. Roberts, Starck and Sikes, along with several other search and rescue volunteers, dropped what they were doing and reported to the Saratoga Police Department for briefing.

At about 5 p.m. on March 3 the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office received a call reporting an emergency locating transmitter had been activated, indicating a plane had crashed. At about 11:30 a.m. on March 5, a U.S. Military medic roped down to the sight of the crash and found the body of Gordon Davis, 63, of Tehachapi, Calif., under the wing of his aircraft. The Carbon County Coroner’s Office later discovered Davis died due to exposure to extreme cold temperatures and trauma.

The wreckage would not have been found if it weren’t for the effort of the volunteers and other search entities, said Starck who commanded search efforts March 4 through March 5.

“I have to personally give credit to our volunteers,” Starck said in an interview after the wreckage was found. “They put their heart and soul into this.”

For three days, volunteers took time off work and away from their families to try and find Davis on Pennock. Volunteers also sacrifice their safety and lives in large-scale search efforts.

Some longtime search and rescue volunteers do not fully understand why they sacrifice so much to find missing people, but most put themselves in the shoes of the missing person, Starck said.

“I think about the family, if the victim is OK, what the family is doing right now,” said Roberts who searched Pennock Mountain for Davis Sunday and Monday. “It constantly goes through your mind.”

Sikes experiences similar thoughts when searching.

“When you get the call you don’t know what shape they are in,” Sikes said. “That is in your mind. There is someone out there. They just were in a crash. We got to go, as fast as we can.”

Although search and rescue volunteers sometimes think of lost vicitims on a personal level, they have to remain professional, Roberts said.

“If you start getting emotional, you become a liability to others,” he said. “You have to be professional about it.”

On Monday of the search, volunteers search Pennock had two main problems, visibility and deep snow.

“We were trying to get up on Pennock on our snow mobiles, but that is tough just to walk in when you are hunting,” Roberts said.

Starck said searchers kept sinking in soft snow, and at some points had zero visibility, making it extremely difficult for the search effort to move forward.

“There were times you couldn’t see at all,” said search and rescue volunteer Martin Huntley who searched with Sikes. “It wasn’t nice.”

On top of the bad weather, searchers learned they would not be getting air support Monday. A U.S. Military helicopter and Civil Air Patrol plane were both grounded due to severe weather conditions, according to the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office.

“That day when we learned we were not going to have air support, we upped our ground force crews just to get more ground area covered,” Starck said.

Volunteers pushed forward into Monday afternoon, continuing to navigate the dangerous terrain and narrow down the search area.

“We did everything we could possibly do with what we had to work with,” Sikes said.

Monday afternoon, ground search efforts got some good news. Civil Air Patrol responders who were at the command post at the base of Pennock Mountain spotted a private plane flying overhead. The pilot agreed to assist in the search.

“It was exciting because all the sudden we have some eyes in the sky, and it makes a big difference,” Starck said.

The pilot who volunteered his services narrowed down the search area by at least half, Starck said. But Monday night came without finding the wreckage, and the Carbon County Sheriff’s Office had to call off the search due to extreme weather and difficult terrain.

“You don’t want to stop searching,” Starck said who searched all of Monday. “The toughest part about search and rescue is putting a whole day in and coming down when it gets dark and there is nothing else you can do and still not have found the person, Roberts said.

Although ending the search Monday night might have been difficult for some volunteers, it was a call the Sheriff’s Office had to make, Starck said.

“We have to find so many people as fast as we can, but at the same time as safe as we can,” Starck said. “The safety of your crew is the No. 1 thing.”

Starcks had never lost a searcher during a mission, but he and search and rescue volunteers know getting lost or injured is a real possibility .

Tuesday morning, when a U.S. Military helicopter finally arrived at the scene, rescuers were able to locate the plane, but did not find Davis alive.

At that point a rescue mission turns into a recovery mission, but it is not a failure, Sikes said.

“Any mission you go on and you find the wreckage, that is a success,” Sikes said.

Huntley can remember a few search and rescue missions where they never found the missing persons. But that person always remains in the back of their mind, Huntley said.

“Anyone that we haven’t found, I still look for them,” Huntley said.